Current Affairs

09/06/2010

Delhi's 55,000 auto-rickshaw drivers plan strike on Tuesday against the government directive for re-allotment of drivers' badges to them. M S Mansoori, general secretary of the Rashtriya Rajdhani Shetra Tin-Pahiya Chalak Union, Delhi complained that around 10 years ago, they were issued temporary driver badges after they had paid Rs 400 and attended two-day class. The government had promised to replace these with permanent ones. But now the government is again asking them to pay another Rs 600 and appear in a fresh test. And, isn’t it shameful? "Why should we keep on paying money again and again? Can't the process be carried out in a more planned manner? We can't afford to waste money like this," he added.

The auto-rickshaw drivers have also accused the government of making arbitrary laws which affect them without even consulting them. "The transport department makes laws in air-conditioned rooms and we have to abide those laws," added Mansoori.

09/03/2010

A woman named Hilda Yao, executive director of the Claire Giannini Fund, has donated over $1 million to fund the wish-lists of EVERY teacher in California. Yao mailed a check of more than $1.3 million to Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org, to cover the entire California wish list, 2,233 projects in all, with an extra $100,000 tossed in to help pay for other teacher needs across the country. Read the full story here>>

09/02/2010

Women in India will now have equal rights in guardianship and adoption of children with the President giving assent to an Act to amend laws governing marriages in the country. Parliament had recently passed the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 to amend the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. Read the complete article here>>

Friends (excluding all those eminently sane persons), now, please, don't blame the law; not even the course of change.

08/31/2010

Usually, men take time, in front of a strange and pretty woman, to drag their loosed self-consciousness and to show formalities of response. For that matter, the gentler sex have distinct advantages over men.

And, that's the reason, perhaps, a Mexican drug gang is hiring pretty young women to carry out killings to surprise its enemies, a suspected member of the vicious La Linea gang said in a video. Around 30 women aged between 18 and 30 years have learned in recent months to carry out killings accompanied by hitmen, and most have killed people, suspect Rogelio Amaya said during a interrogation by federal police. The video of the interrogation was made public on Tuesday. "They're pretty, good-looking, to help mislead opponents," said Amaya, the suspected member of a gang of enforcers for the Juarez cartel in the country's most violent city of Ciudad Juarez. The women operate in the same way as men and carry both light and heavy weapons, the suspect said. Read the complete article here>>

08/29/2010

After four hours of operation, surgeons in Buenos Aires successfully separate a tumor the situation of a four-year-old from a fifty-four-year-old woman's womb. Once removed, the tumor was weighed, measured, and ended up being the size of an average four-year-old boy.

Oscar Lopez, the lead surgeon, said: "I've never seen anything like it in my 35 years of medical service. Its weight is comparable to that of a four-year-old boy... In layman's terms, it was as if this woman had been pregnant with quintuplets."

"As a mother of a combat soldier, I want to thank President Obama personally for seeing to it that my son's life and the lives of the soldiers still living are finally home safe and sound from Iraq. There has been too much bloodshed already. That is what this rally is all about."

Sarah Palin gave a surprise second speech Saturday at Glenn Beck's "Restore Honor" rally in Washington, D.C. In it, she praised President Obama for finally transportation U.S. combat troops location from Iraq.

08/25/2010

The traffic jam has sparked some entrepreneurial spirit for local residents, which has added to traffic-hostages' annoyance. One truck driver complained that vendors were selling instant noodles for "four times the original price while I wait in the congestion."

Not a news of very far future for Delhi, also. But the situation will be slightly different back in our country. The on duty traffic cops will, helplessly, become the mute spectator in a corner at every red light while gossiping with eachother and with bidi in their mouth. We've already seen the trailer. This is the year of heaviest rains in the Capital city due to which Delhi is on the verge of getting the flood alert. There were heavy rains experinced in varios parts of the city which causes the major traffic jam on the waterlogged roads.

08/23/2010

I went through the story and the cat has got my tongue. Anyone want to rent a baby? Rent?? Yeah. Of course, we won't want a baby on rent. But, "South African police have confirmed to the BBC that they are investigating a possible syndicate that has been hiring out children from creches to beggars." Read the full story here>>

Abdullah, who was taking salute from contingents of marching security personnel at the Bakshi Stadium in the heart of Srinagar, did not stir when Abdul Ahad Jan threw the brown shoe from behind. It landed on the grassy ground in Abdullah's front, without hurting anyone.

Later, in a clear reference to unending stone attacks on security forces in the Kashmir Valley, Abdullah said light-heartedly that it was better to throw shoes instead of stones as this would not hurt anybody.

"This is a better way of showing protest," Abdullah said in Urdu.

Abdul Ahad Jan, in civilian dress, was arrested and later branded mentally unsound. According to a police officer's statement, Abdul Ahad Jan is a suspended head constable belonging to (south Kashmir's) Kulgam district and already has a criminal case pending against him.